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HomePod Launches February 9, Available to Order Starting Friday in United States, UK, and Australia
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So disappointing and frustrating that it only supports Apple Music subscription, beats music, podcasts and purchased music. I’m tired of Apple only letting us use there ecosystem. I can’t listen to the music I burned from CDs on iTunes or Spotify. I’m not buying this, and sticking to my Echo.
right, any of the devices that have two speakers barely separated spatially are going to have limited effect as far as stereo separation goes, but it's better than the speakers right next to each other or in a circular array at least.
I'm interested in how the Homepod, Apple TV 4K/4 and connection to a TV works. If the Apple TV could output sound via HDMI and also send sound to the Homepod then it would really add to the experience. I feel it may be an 'either/or' scenario.
For those asking if the power lead is separate, from looking at this photo I think it is part of the speaker.
For those asking if the power lead is separate, from looking at this photo I think it is part of the speaker.
The HomePod has beamforming, which gives it a huge advantage over others. Nobody on the market does this.
So glad this only works with Apple Music. Using Apple Music with the Sonos is just a mess.
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Cool story.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I'm probably not buying ANY of these as I'm not quite seeing "it" yet. Both of those posts are poking at others seemingly so ready to lay the money down sight (and sound) unseen(heard).
Somehow, you seem to be reading something into my posts like I'm striving to convince everyone they must buy one of these. I'm not. If anything, I'm still questioning why some seem so ready to buy... even already proclaiming these King of all speakers. And I'm poking fun at how some seem to be implying features that are almost certainly NOT there like their (faux marketing) job depends on helping sell the rest of us one of these products.
This may be a terrific product or not. It may be magical or not. Most of us know next to nothing at this point. But go through HomePod threads and, depending on the lens through which you view posts, it seems like these can be a massive ripoff or the catalyst for world peace, a cure for cancer & immortality. Personally, I suspect the reality will be something in between.
This is what I've been trying to search for. I know there hasn't been much released in regards to its features. But this would definitely be something that would make me pre-order.
Yarra does
https://www.yarra3dx.com/
I get that it's neat technology, it's just personally not something I'm super interested in as far as audio goes. Maybe in the future I'll change my mind.
You can’t tell from a picture. That looks like how the back of a Play 5 looks and it’s removable.For those asking if the power lead is separate, from looking at this photo I think it is part of the speaker.
Exaggeration and binary opinions are the way of the internet threads sadly. The hive mind usually argues incessantly and mostly lands on one of the binary options. Remember the incessant Xbox One vs PS4 ramblings? People generally argue for their individual use case as the use case for everyone and vehemently argue against otherwise.
Regarding HomePod, I just don't see a general market at this price point. If Echo launched at this price point appealing to the audiophile crowd, it certainly would not have gone as far as it had. Most people that I know that got an Echo took a chance at it's more affordable price point to satisfy their curiosity. The general population is not going to spend $300 to check this out. Lots of people are using stock headphones on their iPhones.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
There's about a 100 posts in this thread now where we're basically splitting hairs over definitions of stereo.
My take: traditional stereo sound requires 2 speakers spread some distance apart with the listener positioned roughly in between the two, such that right channel sound coming from the right speaker hits the right ear and left channel sound from the left speaker hits the left ear.
Take a jumbo roll of toilet paper and set it on some counter. Imagine it is this product. The only way you can get in between the multiple speakers of this product is if you could squeeze yourself inside the cylinder... or maybe shrink enough to sit atop the roll.
Yes, there are technological tricks creating faux stereo or even faux surround. Bounce "beamed" audio off a right wall and bounce another "beam" of audio off a left wall and you can faux it, perhaps even reasonably fooling ears into perceiving something that sounds more like stereo. See Soundbars for example- where left, center and right audio might be as close together as 3 feet. Some Soundbars will even claim surround sound with no surrounding (rear) speakers through such faux surround technical trickery/magic.
Even Apple themselves are encouraging those seeking Stereo sound to buy TWO of these. Yet about half the posts seem to be ignoring Apple's own words by continuing to try to imply that one can yield stereo.
Full circle: define stereo. If your definition is the traditional one I shared above, it's probably most likely you have to heed Apple's suggestion and buy 2 of them, spread them out some from each other and position yourself in between the 2 HomePods. If you want to split hairs, bend the traditional definition to fit some purchasing motivation or marketing messaging objective, etc., you might be able to claim just one of these is stereo and/or surround sound too.
Someone offered that iDevices are stereo with their 2 speakers. Conceptually & technically, I agree because there are 2 distinct speakers left & right and some space between them. But one needs to be able to approx. sit IN the Lightning port to get the traditional kind of stereo to which I personally subscribe. So Marketing can spin "Stereo" speakers without outright lying but none of us can probably shrink ourselves small enough to actually get in between those 2 closely-positioned speakers to get a real stereo experience.
Same here. If you are AntMan or similar, you might be able to sit on top of a HomePod, effectively getting yourself between the multiple speakers in this thing. However, if you are full-sized human, real stereo will likely take 2, magical beamforming spin or not. Before someone takes offense at that, note that Apple says it takes two HomePods too.
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I don’t believe appletv can output audio to HomePod. Maybe in the future once stereo HomePod are enabled? Maybe on day Apple will make a sound bar. That’ll be an instant buy for me.
I'm interested in how the Homepod, Apple TV 4K/4 and connection to a TV works. If the Apple TV could output sound via HDMI and also send sound to the Homepod then it would really add to the experience. I feel it may be an 'either/or' scenario.
For those asking if the power lead is separate, from looking at this photo I think it is part of the speaker.
I just can't see the potential of these. Like 3DTV, just because the tech is there, it doesn't mean people want it. These won't be the mainstream products people think they will be.
"Smeaton1724 said: ↑
I'm interested in how the Homepod, Apple TV 4K/4 and connection to a TV works. If the Apple TV could output sound via HDMI and also send sound to the Homepod then it would really add to the experience. I feel it may be an 'either/or' scenario."
Connection to TV: Bluetooth 5
Through Apple TV: impossible (Apple TV is an Airplay receiver, not an Airplay transmitter)
I'm interested in how the Homepod, Apple TV 4K/4 and connection to a TV works. If the Apple TV could output sound via HDMI and also send sound to the Homepod then it would really add to the experience. I feel it may be an 'either/or' scenario."
Connection to TV: Bluetooth 5
Through Apple TV: impossible (Apple TV is an Airplay receiver, not an Airplay transmitter)
They echo doesn’t integrate with my Apple devices and I can’t use it to play music from my iTunes library.No Apple logo on the echo though
I have an echo dot.
The 9-to-5Mac article states that the HomePod can play music from the Spotify app running on an iPhone via AirPlay, so I assume it will appear as an AirPlay speaker and so be able to stream ripped CDs etc from iTunes running on an iOS device or a Mac. What you probably won't be able to do (without an Apple Music subscription) is to request music using Siri directly on the HomePod.
This is from another article here on MacRumors:
This strongly suggests only one Apple Music account per HomePod, which as I see it is a big design flaw. So technically more than one person can use it, but everyone gets to control only one Apple Music library.
This strongly suggests only one Apple Music account per HomePod, which as I see it is a big design flaw. So technically more than one person can use it, but everyone gets to control only one Apple Music library.